Collaborating Across Differences: The Human Element in Software

Different organizations have fundamentally different assumptions, beliefs, and contexts which makes creating a universal software development framework extremely challenging. However, some elements may be broadly applicable across these differences.

The reality is that organisations each have their own unique cultures, strategic priorities, resource constraints, legacy processes, and domain specific challenges. As a result, blindly adopting any standardised framework frequently leads to frustration and failure.

At the same time, relative similarities may exist around people. All knowledge work involves interactions between human beings with common psychological needs and inherent social motivations. Even though roles, jargon, and tasks vary widely, the human elements and fundamental nature of collaboration can provide some common ground.

With that in mind, here is a proposed collection of related idea, centered first on shared human realities, with flexibility for adaptation. We’ll note that for those organisations that reject the notion that people matter, these idea will inevitablyfall on barren ground:

Promoting Well-Being & Motivation

People need autonomy, mastery and purpose. Provide configurations supporting competence, relatedness and self-direction balanced with stability.

Facilitating Quality Interactions

Leverage group facilitation methods promoting psychological safety, caring, inclusion and mutual understanding between all contributors regardless of differences.

Enabling Effective Collaboration

Equip groups to establish cooperative norms, co-create architectures visualizing interdependencies, jointly prioritize outcomes, design policies balancing diverse needs, and evolve more humane systems thinking.

Customizing To Local Realities

Recognize domains, priorities, constraints and maturity levels vary widely. Provide guidance – but empower teams to inspect and adapt processes and tools to optimize for their specific situation.

Upholding Ethical Values

Keep considerations for transparency, accountability, sustainability, privacy, accessibility, and effects on human dignity and justice central throughout. Ensure these conversations occur.

The intent is to focus first on timeless social and ethical considerations relevant despite organizational differences – while creating space for groups to invent practices suiting their practical realities and honoring their complex contexts.

Invitation to Contribute

While organiational complexities make universal solutions elusive, focusing first on shared human realities may provide some common ground to build upon. I welcome perspectives from across contexts and cultures. Where have you seen connections formed despite differences in software development? What practices have you observed or imagined that might translate across domains? Please share stories, ideas or constructive critiques in the comments – as we collectively work to forge understanding and evolve wiser human systems thinking.